Sand blasted

Security at Pendine was tight - we had to show passports to gain entry. The high-speed test track is set in a large area of sand dunes paradoxically full of birds and flowers.


Professor Alan Smith explains how the penetrator missiles are tested
It's a hard hat site; during the firing itself, all staff must take cover. We were actually confined to the control centre.

Earlier, we saw scientists loading instruments into the third and final penetrator to be tested.

The purpose of the test firings was to check how well the penetrators would withstand being slammed into several tonnes of sand at 1,100km/h (700mph) and whether the instruments inside would survive.

The difference between the penetrators that had already been fired and the one that had yet to be tested was striking.

The blue paint on the fired ones was scraped off and the steel nose cones were distorted.

But despite their battered appearance, Peter Truss of Qinetiq confirmed that they had done their job and protected the instruments inside: "our confidence is growing with every test".

Qinetiq not only contributed to the missile derived design of the penetrators themselves, but to the batteries and communication systems they will carry.

Ultimately, the plan will be to apply this technology to other rocky planets and moons in the Solar System, particularly to Jupiter's icy moon Europa, which may have an ocean below its frozen surface.

Other candidates include Saturn's moons Titan and Enceladus.

Deep space

Until now, missions have only been able to scrape the surface of other planets.

"We're developing the technologies now to enable a much more in-depth analysis of these planetary bodies and with the increase in technology that we can apply to these problems, all sorts of possibilities open up," explained Peter Truss.